Mechanical furnace



Nov. 10, 1925.

o H. BUSE MECHANICAL FURNACE Filed July 5. 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 I d Q w a 0 x a ilji, I?

OTTO \LBuse v INVENTOR.

I ATTORNEYS Nov. 10, 1925- O. H. BUSE MECHANICAL FURNACE Filed July 5. 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Otto H. Buss IN V ENTOR.

BY Mvfi I A TTORNEWS Nov. 10,1925. 1,561,054

r o. H. BUSE MECHANICAL FURNACE Filed July 5. 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 0110 H. Buse Fig.3.

INVENTOR.

Nov. 10,1925. H 1,561,054

; o.|- BUSE IECHANI CAL FURNACE Filed Jqly 5. 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Otto \LBusa IN VEN TOR;

' w %TOR NE YLS Patented Nov. 10, 1925.

UNITED smrss PATENT OFFICE} OTTO I-I. BUSE, OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GRASSELLI CHEMICAL COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

MECHANICAL FURNACE.

Application filed July 5,

To (all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Orro H. Burns, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Shaker Heights, county of Guyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Mechanical F urnaces, of which the following is a specification, the principle of the invention be ng herein explained and the best mode in WlllCll T have contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions.

The present invention relates to a new and improved completely mechanical double stage furnace of the type widely used in the manufacture of muriatic acid and other chemicals, in which the materials are first charged onto a furnace fioor where they are heated, during which action. the material has to be stirred or agitated at intervals to break it up and to allow for the complete reaction that is to be carried out. In such furnaces the agitating or working of the material is a slow and laborious operation which must be performed byhand, the operation usually being carried out by the introduction through ports in the furnace of long heavy tools which are then operated by a man outside of the furnace. It is difiicult to handle these tools because of their weight, and it is also diiiicult for the operator to uniformly agitate the material.

The present invention relates to an improved means for mechanically Working the material over on the floor of such a furnace and this means permits of uniform working of an entire furnace floor by a single operator with a considerable saving of labor and the production of a very much more uniform product than has been possible by former methods. To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends said invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

The annexed drawings and the following description set forth in detail certain mechanism embodying the invention, such dis- Closed means constituting, however, but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawings Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through a furnace for use with which my 1922. Serial No. 573,026.

present invention is adapted; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a car provided with means for operating the shovels and stirring means; Fig. 3 is a plan view of such car; Fig. 4: is a front view of the furnace; Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical section through the charging pot and furnace; Fig. 6 is a view of one of the stirring tools; Figs. 7 and 8 are plan and side views, respectively, of another of the tools; Figs. 9 and 10 are similar views of one of the leveling tools; and Figs. 11 and 12 are similar views of a raking tool. 7

In the ordinary double-stage muriaticfurnace the salt is first shoveled into the pot by hand, the pot being adjacent to the mufiling furnace and being separate from it. The acid or bisulphate of soda, or a mixture of the two, is then run into the pot and after this pasty mass is heated and thickened the material is pushed out of the pot into the muffle or furnace, this operation being carried out by hand with the use of long, heavy scrapers, which are extremely diflicult to handle. After the material is pushed into the furnace proper, it must be spread also by hand and then sliced off the heart-h of the furnace, onto which it bakes after being first heated, and must therefore be turned over at regular intervals until the chlorine content of the mass has been reduced to the proper point, and sodium sulphate of the desired degree of purity isobtained.

Such furnaces are commonly 16 to- 22 feet long and from 6 to 8 feet wide inside, and the temperature which is maintained varies from 1200 to 1400 degrees F. The working of the material, that is, the charging, leveling, slicing and removing, must be carried out by hand, and the tools used must be of sufiicient length to reach to all points of the furnace. The result is that the tools used are extremely heavy and difficult to handle and for proper operation of the furnace more or less skilled operators are required.

The present furnace has been designed to eliminate all of this heavy hand work without the use of mechanical rabbling or stirring devices, which are used in all of the mechanical furnaces which have appeared on the market up to the present time, which have the disadvantage of requiring iron or steel in the furnace chamber. The weak point of all mechanical furnaces Which employ metal in the furnace chamber proper has been the inability of the metal to stand up continuously under the temperature conditions which are required in the hydrochloricaeid atmosphere. A further disadvantageof such furnaces has been their in ability to employ the double-stage operation and at the same time produce sati'sfac tory sulphate of soda.

In Fig. 1 there is shown'a furnace in .Which there is a heating floor 1 which is heated bylflues 2 and above and below cli amber i. The material is chargedonto thijs, fio0r from a; pot 5 which is mounted above the furnace and is. connected thereto byifineans of; a vertical conduit 6 which maybe closed. by means of a damper valve dur ng the operation of the furnac The mounting of the pot in the present furnace directly above the f. rnac-e proper allows for a gi'avity discharge of the material from tliepot directly into the furnace, and also permitsof the use of the waste heat from the furnace proper for heating the material in the. pot, as will be explained hereinafter. Salt ,is first-introduced to the pot after or ficient quantity to combine with the salt to producesulphate of soda and hydrochloric This charge isheateduntil enough theaci d has been driven off to give a heavy pasty mass suitable for the calcining operation. The material is run into the pot 5' beveiegl surfae'eofthe plug and the tapered side ivall' of the opening.

The furnace chamber ei en. the floor 1 of whiclithe material isspread asitis charged threuglr'the conduitfi is provided with a series'of lateral openings 13, i land 15 for thedijsjharge ofthepgas.

The furnace is heated by ineans of a fire box 90,'cr'other equivalent means the hot gz-rses passing over the furnace through a passage and then laterally through pas sages and downwardto passage. 9.3 beneath the h'eai thof the. furnace. Aportion of thefasf is withdra wn through a port 94: andis gassed upwardly through a conduit 95, an dfithenflthrough chambers 96 and 9.7,

in the base of the pot for heating the fcon' ch sulphuric acidor bisulphate of soda a Inliitureof the two is charged in suf-.

' upon wheels 27.

air motor 50 througha gear 51. on the sh of the motor.

floor may be, Worked over by the agitating- 0 tools when introduced through these doors. Each of the doors 20 is opened by power e isin the form of fluid pressure cylin- 110 connected to the doorsby chains 111. Air (or other pressure fluid) is supplied tothe cylinders through flexible con nections tnot shown) leading to the operating car to be described presently. in front of the furnace and parallel totl e front thereof are, tracks. on which operate small cars having dump bodies 2 for receiving the sait cake after it has been removed from the furnace. These cars are then run across theIfront of fthe furnace to discharge the other tracks 2 upon which there is mounted'a car '26, also adapted tolmove parallel with the front of the furnace and provided with means for pi 'opelling the car over the tracks. This car is shownin Fig. 2 and consists of a rectangular framework mounted Mounted on this rame work is a fluid pressure motor 28 for driv shaft 29 which operates a spro P 30 from which the axle 2-31 and wheels at of the car are driven the drive being transmitted from the sprocket 30 to the axle by means of a chain BEZ'and sprocket 33 on the axle. .A relatively small motor may be used for this drive since the sprocket 30 driven through a worm gear 3st and worm 3' the worm being carried on the end of the shaft 29. v I

Mounted at the front end of the car are two (Io-operative grooved rolls L0 and il. These two rolls are mounted closely adjacent to each other and the grooves are formed to receive and firmly support an agitating tool 42. This tool 42 is mcved transversely of the direction of trave; c the car by means of rolls and 441;, of which the upper roll 4% is carried on a shaft f5, Which also carries sprockets I driven by means of chains l? from s *ocizets a8, on ,a driving shaft 49. This driving shaft 49 isoperated by means of a second ft a9 and a driving pinion 52 on the shaft There is a certain amount of irregularity in the sizes of the different tools, which are operated in the mechanism already described, and to compensate for this differ ence in the size of the tools the lower roll 43 is pressed upwardly by means of a spring while the upper roll 14 is adjustable by means of a screw 56 controlling the position of the journal 57 in which this roll is carried. To enable the rolls 4:3 and 4-4 t: grip the tool 42-2 and operate it against the very considerable resistance of the material in the furnace, a sand box 60 is mounted on the top of the car and sand may be dropped onto the bat a l-2 through conduits (i1 and 61.

In Fig. 3 there is shown the operators platform 70, mounted in one corner of the machine, and the controls for operating the two fluid pressure motors 28 and 50 and also for operating the lifting of the various furnace doors 20 are grouped along one side of the operators platform. In Fig. 2 l have shown the incoming air supply line 71 and a series of four conduits T2, 73, 74 and 75, leading to the series of four (or more) furnace doors, while these lines are controlled by means of valves 76, 77, 78 and 79. Air is admitted to the motor 50 through a valve which is controlled by means of a rod 80, link 81 and operating lever 82, which is mounted upon. one side of car. Close control of the operation of the car is made possible by the mounting of valves 83 and 84 at the operators platform for controlling the air conduits leading to the motors 28 and 50 respectively.

The operation of the car is as follows: the car is first moved opposite to one of the doors 20 in the furnace after which the operator causes the opening of this door and then advances the tool 12 through the door and scrapes a path over the furnace floor which is of course equal to the width of the head of the tool. The tool is then retracted, the car is moved a short distance across the opening in the furnace, which the operator is able to judge very accurately after using the apparatus for a short time, in order to bring the operating tool alongside of the furrow which has just been stirred on the floor of the. furnace, and the operation is then repeated. This operation is repeated as many times as necessary to ctnnpletely agitate all of the material which can be reacned through a single door, after which the car is moved to the next door and the same operation is carried out until the entire furnace floor has been raked and the material turned over on the floor. After the reaction complete, a scraping tool is introduced in the same manner and the material. scraped out through the doors of the furnace and into the cars 24. With the esent apparatus one operator can completely work over the material in such a furnace in very much less time than is possible by hand raking and with an important saving in labor cost and time. Furthermore, the material is more uniformly agi fated and it can be removed from the furnace very much faster and without letting the furnace cool down between operations.

The various tools for operating on the material on the furnace hearth are shown in Figs. 6 to 12, inclusive. In Fig. 6 there is shown a slice bar for slicing the material from the floor of the furnace, to which it adheres after the first heating. in Figs. 7 and 8 there is shown a turning tool. These tools are run back and forth through the material by means of a car, already described, and act to loosen and turn over the material on the hearth. In Figs. 9 and 10 there is shown a leveler, which consists of a shank 100, carrying two pivoted arms 101. These arms carry at their ends curved shoes 102, which space the arm 101 proper a de sired distance from the hearth of the furnace and serve to level off the material when the tools are drawn over the floor. The arms swing between the pins 103 and 104:, as indicated.

In Figs. 11 and 12 there is shown a raking tool, consisting of a shank 106 and pivoted rake member 107, which is normally maintained in the position shown in Fig. 12 by means of a spring 108. When pushed into the furnace over the material the rake head swings up, riding on the material, but when returned this head drops down, carry ing the material with it and raking it out of the doors of the furnace.

The present furnace has several distinct advantages over the two-stage mechanical furnace now in use, or the two-stage hand furnaces which are the standard type for the manufacture of the material in question. The present furnace allows the crude materials to be charged directly into the pot, eliminating all hand labor which was formerly connected with this operation, and at the same time making the charging operation very much faster than has heretofore been possible. The pot discharges from a central opening, and the interior of the pot is readily accessible for cleaning. Heretofore a central gravity discharge from the pot has been considered impossible because of the difficulties of sealing the discharge opening during the first stage of the operation, but this has been satisfactorily accomplished by means of the plug and sealing means already described. The discharge of the contents of the pot by gravity on to the hearth of the furnace facilitates the even distribution of the material over the hearth by the mechanical stirring andhandling tools, and the latter are operated very much faster, and of course with very'much less labor than is possible with hand tools. Furthermore,

plane parallel the tools themselves are in'the furnace at mosphere a very; much shorter periodxhe cause 015 the greater-amount oat WOIlfiVv'lilCli can .heaclone by the mechanically operated mechanism than can be donehy hand laloorx" This decreases very Other modes of applying theprinciple of my invention may lie-employed mstead of the one explained, chann being made as regards the mechanism her 1 stated means be employed.

ltherelore particularly point out anddis tinctly claim as my invention 1. In mechanism of the character described, the combination of a furnace chamher having a substantially horizontal floor and a door at the level of said floor, a car-" ria-gemovable intront of'said furnacein a With thejplane of sald door,

driven rollers mounted onsaid carriageya tool engaged between said' rollers, sai'd rollers loeingmounted? to position said tool at right angles to theplaneof said door, and said rollers being also adapted to actuate said tool=intoand out of said furnace. I

2.111 mechanism of the character de-* -scrihed, the

combination of'a furnace chamher having a substantially horizontal floor, anopening in one wall at the level of said floor-anda-door foreclosing said opening, a carriage movahlei in front of said furnace in a; plane 'parallel'with the-plane of said \val1,tWo pairs of rollers mounted in spaced relationonsaid carriagein a plane at right angles-:to the planeot said Wall, aftool' mounted in said: two-sets of rollers, and

' means adapted to actuate said rollers/to reciprocate said toolf i I 3. In mechanism. of the character de- Y scribed, the combination of a furnace having; an opening inone wall, .a'movable'door' normally ClOSIIIg: such opening, a carriage mounted adjacent such opening and door, a tool-mounted on said carr1age,'means adapted to actuate said tool through such opening int-o; said-furnace, power means'adjacent said door for openingq the same,1andconnections between said power meanszand said carriage whereby said means may he operatedw'froni-smd carriage. V r

4;; 1n mechanism: o'f zthe character :de--

"scribed, the combination of raifuirnace having f adjacent disclosed, pre rided the'means stated by anyofthe following" claims or the" equivalent of such an opening in onewvall a movable door nor mally closing such opening, a carriage mounted ad" cent such opening and door, a tool mounted on; 1 adapted to actuate nace upon opening of (1' tool into said fura id door, power means :iid doori 'opt-niingi'he same, and central"connections "or said two power means, said connections leeing mounted in proximity to each other on saidcarriage,

zited "from said carriage.

lied,

the combination of a furnace havnormall so ngsnch opening, a carriage mounted adgaeent such opening and door, a

tool 1 i oam upon opening said door, fluid presl c means mounted a acentsa-id door for ans-may he actuated'from saidicarriage. G'Qi'nmechanism" oi the charactei de- SC-I'lbfld," the" combination or a furnace hav-" ing a plurality of aligned openings and doorsnormaliir clos in the same, a carriage 5 movable ina plane parallel with the plane oi said doors, a tool mounted on said car riagg e, means adapted to reciprocate said tool into ainl ont oi suchopeningsflin said fur-' nac'e upon openingof said doors, means operahle virom said carriage for selectively opening said doors, and other means adapt? (l carriage, power means an open in one Walh'a movable door ed onsaid carriage, power means: ted to actuate sa-idytoo'linto said "fur 85 id means and said carriage *Wherebysaid" whereby :-:'aid":loor and tool may b'e-actu- In mcchanisn'i of rthe' character de-f ed to move said carriage to bringsaidtool into operative relation with such openings in said furnace.

i ln' mechanism' of the character de scribed, the oomloination' oi' a carriage bearing a raised frameworkthereon, a pair of complementary rollers mounted at one side a OfSEtldJEIEHIIQWOPLY, a second pair of co1'nplementary' rollers mounted in said framework in alignment with said first named"pair, said rollers being adapted torecelvejthe shank of a furnace tool, and means adapted to causeone pair of said rollers to firmly engage said shank]:

8x111 scribed, the combination'of aacarri'age hearing a raised frameworkthereon, a pair of worir. in aligmiient with said first named pair, said rollers being adapted to receive the shank of a "furnace tool, and resilient meansadaptedl' to press oneof said rollers of said last named pair against said shank to engage the semen 9. The combination of tWo 'co operatively mounted? rolls, saidrrolls' being providedwith grooves in their outer surfaces, such grooves "j ointly defining a predetermined polygonal mechanism of the" character decomplementary rollers mountedat one side of'said frameworlu a second-pair. of complementary rollers mounted 1 in said framefigure, and a tool having a shank opei'atively and non-rotatably engaged in such grooves.

10. The combination of two oo-operatively mounted rolls said rolls being provided with grooves in their outer surfaces, such grooves jointly defining a predetermined polygonal figure, a tool having a shank operati vely and non-rotatably engaged in such joint polygonal groove in said rolls, and means adapted to maintain said rolls in op- 10 erative engagement with said tool.

Signed by me, this first day of July, 1922.

OTTO H. BUSE. 

